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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. R. KITSON.

GOTTON OPENER AND LAPPER.

Patented Dec. 5, 1882.

N. PETERS. Pholo-Lflhographer. Wnulliflglon. 11c.

UNITED STATES RICHARD KITSON, OF LOWELL,

MASS., ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT PATENT OFFICE.

AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE KITSON MACHINE COMPANY AND THE \VHITE- HEAD & ATHERTON MACHINE COMPANY, BOTH OF SAME PLACE.

COTTON OPENER AND LAPPER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 268,413, dated December 5, 1882.

Application filed May 21, 1 881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, RICHARD KITSON, of the city of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cotton Openers and Lappers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to machines for'opening, cleaning, and lapping cotton; and its Oh-' to jects are to remove from the cotton, as it is formed into a lap in the machine, the largest possible amount of dirt with few beatings, and to produce an even lap that will not be liable to split or separate when fed to other machinery. r 5 I attain these objects by mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section. Fig. 2 is a broken perspective of one of the collecting-cages removed from the machine. Fig. 3 is a side elevation, with casing nearest the observer removed, of a machine'of my construction with arrows indicating the direction of movement of the several rotating parts.

A is the frame of the machine; B,the apron upon which the cotton is fed to the feed-rolls c c, which feed it to the first beater, C, by which it is operated upon, after which it is carried forward to the collecting-cages D D by the current of air created by the beater C and draft fan F. The cotton flying in the air is deposited on the cages as they rotate and forms on them laps in the usual well-known manner. As each cage is connected with the draft-fan, which exhausts the air from the cages, each cage will gather upon its surface the fibers of flying cotton moving forward with the air-current, and as the two laps formed by this pair of cages are immediately added the one to the other anyinequalities in one caused by larger 4.0 quantities being deposited on one part of the collecting-cage than upon another will be compensated for by being placed with another sheet which will not probably have at their points of contact a like inequality in thickness. 4 5 Another advantage obtained by the use of two cages is that the cotton falls upon a large extent of cage-surface toward which an inrushing current of air carries it, and it loses as it is deposited upon the cage-surfaces a larger quantity of light dust and leaf fiber than when it is deposited upon a single cage. The disadvantage in using two cages is that the two laps formed by the two cages will, when passing from the cages, never so firmly unite to form one single lap, even though firmly com- 5 pressed by. calender-rolls that such lap is not liable to split or separate into its two component laps as it is passed to carding machinery.

In my device, after being formed into two laps, which unite and are pressed into one by the draw-off rolls d (1, the lap so formed is passed to feed-rolls e e, by which it is fed to the beater E, by which it is again opened and the fibers separated one from the other, and thrown forward with the current of air generated by the beater toward the cage G, upon which it falls or is drawn by the inrushing current of air caused by the draft-fan F exhausting the air from the cage. As the cage G rotates it carries the cotton deposited upon it under the press-roll H, which smooths its upper surface.

70 7c are two draw-01f rolls, which take the lap formed upon thecageGroft'from it,when itpasses over the carrying-roll m to the presscalender rollsN N N. The lap passing out between the calender-rolls and made by the machine, being formedupon a single cage, consists of a lap which has all its fibers interlocked as they are deposited upon the cage, and is notthere. fore liable to split or separate when fed to the So carding-machine.

My device consists of an organized machine for opening cotton, in which a pair of lap-forming cages receives the cotton from a beater and form it into two separate laps which are united into a single lap, which is fed to a beater which beats up and opens the said united lap, after which the cotton which formed said united lap is formed into a single lap upon a single final-delivery collecting-cage, 0 thus producing an evenerlap than can be produced upon a machine having only a single cage after each heater, and a firmer and more uniformly cohesive lap than can be formed upon a machine provided only with pairs of 5 cages after each beater, because after the first beater the laps formed by the union of two laps formed of the cotton worked by the one beater makes an evenerlap to feed to a second beater than can be formed upon a single cage, for the inequalities in the one lap formed upon one cage serve to correct those in the lap formed on the other, and such greater equality affects the evenness of the final lap produced upon the single final collecting-cage and serves to produce a lap of great evenness, and at the same time not liable to split when fed to carding-machines.

I am aware that cotton-openers having collecting or lap-forming cages operating in pairs after each beater have been in use; and I am aware that machines having-but a single cage upon which a lap is formed after each beater have been used. The construction of either R [OH ARD KITSON.

Witnesses:

J. W. ANDERSON, .LEPINE 0. RICE. 

